Location
Online, CIUSSS-NIMCategory
Health behaviour, PsychologyRecruitment status
Ongoing recruitmentSummary
Poor health behaviours such as smoking, being physically inactive, eating an unhealthy diet, and not taking medication as prescribed are important risk factors for the development and/or worsening of chronic diseases (like heart and lung diseases, obesity, diabetes and cancer). In order to get people to engage in good health behaviours, physicians typically give people advice about what they should (and should not) be doing in order to improve their health. However, people often resent getting advice when it is perceived as being “told what to do” – which tends to make people resistant to changing their behaviour.
Motivational communication (MC) is a communication style used to motivate people to adopt a healthy lifestyle by exploring how having good health behaviours can help them achieve their personal life goals. MC is personalized so it can be used with people of all ages, ethnic origins, cultures and languages. It has been very effective in helping people quit smoking, lose weight, and be more active. As a result, more and more physicians are being trained to use MC with their patients. However, many of the tests for assessing how well physicians are using MC are difficult to use and don’t assess MC skills well. Effective and easy to use tests are important for ensuring the quality of training programs but also for ensuring patients benefit from the approach.
This project focuses on the development of a new test to measure MC skills in physicians that is scientifically valid, fun, easy and quick to use. The project will check that it really tests what it is supposed to test (MC skills), so the test can then be used to assess how well our training programs are able to improve physicians' MC skills. Helping physicians learn more effective methods for supporting patients to adopt a healthier lifestyle and engage in good health behaviours is critical for improving health outcomes in those with or at risk for chronic disease.
Learn how to participate: http://www.mc-cat.org/login/login.php
The primary objective of this project is to assess the internal (basic psychometric properties) and external (ability to predict ‘real-world’ practice behaviour) validity of the MC-CAT. This is crucial for ensuring the tool’s utility and validity for predicting the success of MC training programs. Ensuring that physicians are acquiring the skills these training programs are designed to teach is vital for ensuring the translation of these evidence-based behaviour change counselling programs into clinical practice so they may actually impact patient care and outcomes.
For physicans only:
Register for the MC-CAT VALIDATION process
Geneviève Szczepanik, Project coordinator
genevieve.szczepanik@mbmc-cmcm.ca
Vincent Gosselin Boucher, Student
vincent.gosselin.boucher@gmail.com
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec
- Gosselin Boucher V, Bacon SL, Voisard B, Dragomir AI, Gemme C, Larue F, Labbé S, Szczepanik G, Corace K, Campbell TS, Vallis MT, Garber G, Rouleau C, Diodati JG, Rabi D, Sultan S, Lavoie KL, Network For Health Behavior Change And Promotion (CAN-Change). Assessing Physician’s Motivational Communication Skills: A 5-step mixed-methods development study of the Motivational Communication Competency Assessment Test (MC-CAT). JMIR Medical Education. 2022 Jun;8(2):e31489. doi: 10.2196/31489
- Boucher VG. (2021). Développement et validation d'un outil d'évaluation des compétences en communication motivationnelle auprès de médecins. Doctoral Thesis. Montréal (Québec, Canada), Université du Québec à Montréal, PhD Psychology. https://archipel.uqam.ca/15026/
- Dragomir AI, Boucher VG, Bacon SL, Gemme C, Szczepanik G, Corace K, Campbell TS, Vallis MT, Garber G, Rouleau C, Rabi D, Diodati JG, Ghali W, Lavoie KL*. (2021). An International Delphi Consensus study to define Motivational Communication in the Context of Developing a Training Program for Physicians. Translational Behavioral Medicine. 2021 Mar 16;11(2):642-652.
- Boucher VG, Gemme C, Ribiero P, Bacon SL, Lavoie KL*. (2021). Evaluation of Communication Skills Among Physicians: A Reply to the Commentary by Smith, Kovar-Gough, and Grayson-Sneed. Psychosomatic Medicine 2021 Jan 1; 83(1):102-103.
- Boucher, V.G., Gemme, C., Dragomir, A.I., Larue, F., Bacon, S.L., Lavoie, K.L. (2020). Evaluation of communication skills among physicians: A systematic review of existing assessment tools. Psychosomatic Medicine. 82(2): 440-451.
- Boucher, V.G., Gemme, C., Dragormir, A.I., Szczepanik, G., Simon, B., Lavoie, K.L. (2018). The development of an evaluation tool for assessing the acquisition of motivational communication skills among physicians using an integrated KT approach. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 53(3), 299-308.